It also means “spent”, “wasted”, “squandered”, “passed”, “worn”, “worn out”, “consumed”, “thrown (away from one)”… all that kind of thing, both in Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It’s the past participle of “caith”.
Don’t just fiddle around respelling Irish names. There may be unintended consequences.
Don’t trust baby name books. They lie. A lot.
And if somebody else named you… providing you with mortification opportunities is just part of what parents do.😉
This has been a Celtic Service Announcement.
UPDATE explaining what brought this on:
It’s a reasonably popular name (a good couple million Google results even when you eliminate the most common stuff), so nobody who holds it is alone. Some people use it as an abbreviated form, while others use it as a hip respelling of Caitlin (Kathleen) or of Kate/Katie. (Celticky spelling being hip right now.) It’s not in the top 1000 baby names in the US yet, though.
It’s an outgrowth of not pronouncing Caitlin the Irish way (Kathleen, more or less). So ultimately, it’s probably Airwolf’s Fault. Or soap operas. Whichever grabbed the name first. One of the Amazing Race participants this year spells her abbreviated name that way, and she’s not alone. But garsh, nobody in Ireland or Scotland names their baby “Caite”. (I checked their national stats pages.)